ex-son-in-law s neighborhood. it s reconnaissance. paul duncsak for the week s prior followed the same pattern day in and day out. same pattern, he s punching in, punching out. you could set your watch to him. well put. the sergeant also testified to those wiretaps, the ones in which edward ates reminds his sister about when he arrived in louisiana, on a tuesday before the wednesday murder of paul duncsak. he has co-opted his sister and his mother into a conspiratorial agreement to hinder his apprehension because it is clear that the truth is he was not there on tuesday. asserted by the prosecution, but still not proven. but that was about to change in most dramatic fashion. the defendant s sister, brenda, took the stand. in a soft voice, she, in effect, ratted out her brother. she recounted how he d asked her to lie to police, to tell them he arrived on her louisiana doorstep on tuesday. now, you knew that was untrue? yes, sir.
he told the court he d seen a green van with a mysterious woman inside it around the time of the murder, but the tip seemed to be one of those investigative red herrings. i did not then nor do i now believe that that van was involved in this murder. instead the prosecutors said the evidence gathered in the months after the murder showed that the killer was far from a nameless intruder. it was, in fact, someone who knew paul duncsak well and plotted his death carefully. what we have here as a search string is how to commit a perfect murder. a forensic expert provided damning testimony against the defendant. he explained how a computer used by edward ates and later seized by police yielded the ghosts of past online searches. is it true that on the hard drive they found a search asking the question, how do you commit the perfect murder? that is true. he researched how to pick a lock and purchased a lock pit set. he researched silencers, and he
nothing. and i was calling his name and he wasn t answering. the court heard how the fiancee immediately called 911 and local police arrived within minutes to discover a lifeless paul duncsak, slumped inside a narrow hallway of an otherwise pristine house. any sign anywhere at the residence of paul duncsak of forced entry? no. an investigator who processed the crime scene testified that the evidence pointed away from a botched robbery. the victim, he said, was still wearing a rolex watch and had $300 in cash on him. multiple gunshot wounds were testimony to a violent death. does that tell you anything? it tells me somebody wanted this man dead very, very badly. to preempt the standard defense argument that the cops never seriously pursued anyone but the accused, the prosecutor called a young neighbor to the stand.
jurors say, well, he s indicted. the prosecution and the police believe he did it. let s find out how guilty he is. what i had to show the most was scientific fact that he could not have done it. the attorney began his argument at the crime scene itself where the defense claimed the detective who so meticulously went over every piece of evidence collected there failed to come up with anything, not so much as a fingerprint or a fiber to connect ed ates to the crime. you re going to see a lot of what i call hm, well, that s interesting, what about that ? but not one of those makes up beyond a reasonable doubt. wouldn t you think he would have asked that an eyewitness would have remembered a strange 300-pound man lumbering away in broad daylight? the attorney did point out something a young neighbor had seen. a mystery woman inside a green van park behind the victim s home. and there was a green van
as it turns out, those would be the least of paul duncsak s problems. something far more sinister was waiting for him inside that million-dollar home in the safe new jersey burbs. the theory the police developed is that the killer is on the stairs. and the first shot is up. paul duncsak had been ambushed and killed in his own home. the shooter had escaped, and now friends of paul were wondering seriously if they might be next. i didn t know if i was on some type of hit list. how had paul duncsak s abbreviated life ended in murder? well, you need to understand the marriage. he met his bride-to-be stacey in 1998 at a pharmaceutical conference. he did consulting for the industry, she was a sales rep. friends say they were instantly mad about each other. paul s brother john didn t know what to make of her. she was nothing if not direct.